The Audiophoolery Thread.

[Craig Sawyers]

Bybee has a whole series of hokum devices which sit in series with the mains, loudspeakers, signal level etc. In copper, silver etc.

They are are sold in various combinations of the words Quantum and Slipstream. At one point the were marketed as reducing noise.

There are believers, and non-believers in this sort of nonsense.

Craig

[its ur aerial]

Just seen an advert on my local on line Auction, for a pair of 3.5 meter long Russ Andrew Speaker leads, that have been quote, "successfully bedded in", apparently they're a bargain at £325 a pop !

Ken G6HZG.

[Radio Wrangler]

That's good. Whoever buys them ought to be able to hear an immediate improvement. Usually the effect is said to be quite slow through the bedding in period, leaving many people unsure of whether there was any difference at all!

David

[Craig Sawyers]

The woven cables that Russ Andrews sells come from Kimber in Salt Lake City.

The key attribute is that the woven structure has almost unmeasurably low inductance, but rather high capacitance per unit length. That means that they are not susceptible to RF ingress, and don't radiate either.

I use them, but only because I have active speakers (Linkwitz LX521.4) with 5 channels of power amps per side. With Kimber, I just run them all in Tekflex without any interaction between the cables.

I'll declare an interest here. The Russ Andrews SD mains cables are my design, as are the Evolution mains cables. SD stands for "Sawyers Disc"; not my choice of names by the way. These are modifications carried out in Kendal to raw woven cable from Kimber.

Needless to say these are based on engineering principles and measurement, and both designs reduce conducted RFI (differential and common mode) without use of inductive components. Measurements to validate all this were carried out at https://www.3ctest.co.uk/

Buckling up for the storm coming my way

Craig

[Kentode]

Two weeks later, still no sign of a storm!

Anybody on this forum for more than a few weeks will have read your sage advice and realised that you come from a sound (sorry) background and are not someone who is trying to convince people that there's something mystical in your research.

Nothing to see here, please move along!

[Radio Wrangler]

It looks like you've got away with it, but we'll only know for sure when someone posts about something genuinely ludicrous and off we go again.

David

[its ur aerial]

A curious look at the Russ Andrews web site, and I see they also do "a right little earner", in BS1362 plug fuses, at £25 or £75 each! for the gold plated version.
Apparently fitting their version of the BS1362 improves the Audio quality !
But this left me wondering, on a technical note, how much could you alter the design of a plug fuse, before it no longer complies with BS1362?
I did notice, that all their fusses listed are all black in colour despite the different current ratings, I believe that may be a compliance digress from BS1362
I also wondered why they have stopped at plug fusses ? could there also be a further little earner to be had, in gold plated BS1361`s for the Audiophile`s Consumer Unit!
Don't get me on it
Ken, G6HZG.

[Radio Wrangler]

Where RFI problems are pointed at as the justification for expensive mains cables, funny fuses and whatnot, we should remember that these are all sticking plaster bodges trying to make up for a piece of equipment not having adequate filtering on the mains entry.

Corcom and Schaffner do some decent filters, and having it right at the place where mains enters the cabinet is EXACTLY the right place for it. Anywhere else is second-best to start with.

David

[Refugee]

There is an adjustment relating to RFI that can be demonstrated without formal test equipment.
The adjustment is between muddy and phoney.
This adjustment is made by setting the speaker cable lifter height. Down is closer to the soil making it more muddy.
Taller is more phoney. Closer to phone signals or masts.
Without formal test equipment a phone can be placed close to the interconnects while a text message is being sent. A phony sound should be heard.

[Herald1360]

"Phoney (US- phony)" rather sums up the whole issue of cable lifters. Muddy is presumably how the cable gets to be if it's walked over with dirty shoes

[Beobloke]

Originally Posted by Refugee

There is an adjustment relating to RFI that can be demonstrated without formal test equipment.
The adjustment is between muddy and phoney.
This adjustment is made by setting the speaker cable lifter height. Down is closer to the soil making it more muddy.
Taller is more phoney. Closer to phone signals or masts.
Without formal test equipment a phone can be placed close to the interconnects while a text message is being sent. A phony sound should be heard.

I'm glad someone has pointed this out at last.

It should be obvious to anyone that the best place for speaker cables is on the floor, because this is ground and we all know that ground is very important. If you start lifting them up into the air and waving them around they'll pick up all sorts of mobile phone radiation and your inky black silences will be interrupted by alerts from Sharon282848 on Faceache posting the latest picture of her poodle in its new pink jumper.

Oh, and it needs to be ground as in the ground on the ground floor. Systems upstairs have no hope of ever sounding decent.

[Beobloke]

Originally Posted by Craig Sawyers

Needless to say these are based on engineering principles and measurement, and both designs reduce conducted RFI (differential and common mode) without use of inductive components. Measurements to validate all this were carried out at https://www.3ctest.co.uk/

Buckling up for the storm coming my way

Craig

I really want to let rip, but I can't bring myself to do it. It would be like kicking a defenceless puppy!

[Refugee]

Originally Posted by Herald1360

"Phoney (US- phony)" rather sums up the whole issue of cable lifters. Muddy is presumably how the cable gets to be if it's walked over with dirty shoes

There is also a lot of blurb about what the little pylons are made of.
I personally see nothing wrong with the pylons sold for the adornment of model railway layouts.

[Radio Wrangler]

Originally Posted by Refugee

There is also a lot of blurb about what the little pylons are made of.
I personally see nothing wrong with the pylons sold for the adornment of model railway layouts.

Pylons at that scale are quite safe, but don't go scaling any large ones. And as for the dangers of even larger pylons, just ask any Hindenberg survivor...

One afternoon in Edinburgh, on the way to an afternoon in the Mountbatten building when it was in the Grassmarket, I deviated to a shop in the new town to buy a new belt for my Rega. And there, in his shop, I met the man himself, Mr R Andrews. Our conversation was memorable. I'm glad it was Daya Rasaratnam's turn to drive. I couldn't see for tears.

David

[The Philpott]

No storm, just a breeze- probably because the crux of the thread being unreasonably high prices versus the functionality of the product/s, the designer for the most part escapes criticism as long as he is not directly involved in the retail pricing.

I would be surprised if measurements to validate the phenomenon of 'cable burn-in' existed- however this is a broad claim of many such retailers mentioned previously (and generally across the whole product range of cables/fuses &c. regardless of designer or origin)

Dave

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

Pylons at that scale are quite safe, but don't go scaling any large ones. And as for the dangers of even larger pylons, just ask any Hindenberg survivor...

One afternoon in Edinburgh, on the way to an afternoon in the Mountbatten building when it was in the Grassmarket, I deviated to a shop in the new town to buy a new belt for my Rega. And there, in his shop, I met the man himself, Mr R Andrews. Our conversation was memorable. I'm glad it was Daya Rasaratnam's turn to drive. I couldn't see for tears.

David

Those little pylons are incredibly dangerous, especially if you tread on them in bare feet.

I expect your tears after meeting Mr Andrews were tears of joy for the 99% discount he offered you on prospective purchases.

[Lucien Nunes]

I would be surprised if measurements to validate the phenomenon of 'cable burn-in' existed

Can I take this opportunity to remind everyone that burn-in is a directional process, regardless of whether the component itself is directional. Burning-in in the wrong direction results in burning-out which can be manifest as a sudden drop in performance*. Components especially prone to damage by burn-out / reverse burn-in include fuses of any colour, loudspeaker voice coils and amplifier output stages. Don't assume that connecting the DC positive of the supply to the red speaker terminal or amplifier output terminal is always correct.

*While burning-out degrades many parameters, ultimate noise-floor is often improved.

[wd40addict]

Interesting how burn in always eventually results in an improvement even if was a roller coaster ride on the way...

[Radio Wrangler]

Hmm, if cables only burn-in properly if used the right way round, then the purchaser has to buy the cables and start burning them in while occasionally having a listen to discern whether there is an improvement (remember, these improvements are special and not amenable to measurement.) if the improvement isn't there and in fact is a degradation, then the user has to turn the cables around and get on with trying to burn them in again, hoping for the degradation to be reversed and the expected improvement to come in... if it does not, then he's back to square one and has to buy new cables.

It is possible that the user may not have audiophile hearing or appreciation, despite his desire to be seen owning audiophile equipment. In this case there needs to be a network of hireable gurus to come round, listen and make the decisions for you, or else various eduactional establishments need to offer hearing training classes.

Mr Andrews tried to sell me (right out of the blue) an Isobarik/Naim triamp setup. I disagreed and said I could get something better sounding for the price, and cited a wheelbarrow full of concert tickets. Met with the statement that 'we go to concerts too, got to calibrate our hearing" my reply was "I'm just a simple member of the public, I only listen to the music."

David

[Refugee]

Originally Posted by G.Castle

Pylons at that scale are quite safe, but don't go scaling any large ones. And as for the dangers of even larger pylons, just ask any Hindenberg survivor...



Those little pylons are incredibly dangerous, especially if you tread on them in bare feet.

Surely they can't be any worse than a BS1363 plug if trodden on bare foot
I bet those toy pylons produce a spoken word we are not allowed to type with a lovely fuzz box effect added all the same.